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Stephen Hyde

LIttle backed up today. Yesterday was pretty great at the World Cup in Iowa City. The ride of the day , in my opinion, was by Stephen Hyde. That guy can ride a cross bike in tough conditions. I was on the off-camber downhill the first lap and he crashed and lost a ton of time.

Crashing on the first lap of a cross race can sometimes be nearly fatal for your results. But he kept picking guys off. With 2 laps to go, it looked like he was stalling out a bit, but then he refocused. And finished 10th, best American by a mile. And just a tad off 8th. Here is his ride in photos.

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12 thoughts on “Stephen Hyde”

Kudos to Hyde. I never saw Powers or the other Americans until the final results.

As I watched the race online, I was particularly impressed by the course layout. You could have picked up that course and dropped it in Belgium and no one would have been the wiser. Has the Jingle always been this good? I was a little surprised, though, that they detoured around the mud along the pit.

Seemed there were more spectators than your typical local cross race but not that many more. Was there a USAC race earlier and how was the turnout? Not sure what motivated the promoter to do a UCI World Cup in IA, but I wonder what this race could have been if it were held in a hotbed of cyclocross like Portland, OR or in the NE like Gloucester, MA. Surely, many more age category crossers would show up to race and then hang around to watch the pros.

I met Stephen when he was riding for Astellas on the road in 2014.
It was obvious to me that he had a lot of ability.
I tried, without success, to get him on a bigger road squad for 2015.
As things turned out for him, it was better that he stayed where he was and made the move to Cannondale for 2015 and 2016.
He seems to be getting stronger by the minute.
I wish him great success when he goes across the pond later in the year.

FYI, Portland is a hotbed of competitive cycling in general because OBRA is the dominant federation. They do a fantastic job of providing the infrastructure for events people want to attend.

That there were so few spectators is quite typical for a USAC/UCI product. The way the events are structured by all the intricate promoter rules, there’s no reason for casual fans to show up. It’s a terrible product. Yet, the few competitive cyclists in the country seem not to mind.

Yes, Jingle Cross has been a magnet race for a number of years. Iowa City IS a hot bed of cycling and has been for decades. Not as populous as some of the coasts, but both road and cross are well supported. In years past JC has brought out over 1000 amateurs to race.

Euros told us the spectator counts were lower than Belgium, but noisier and more supportive. Jingle Cross is a race that operates at the highest level, and returns a donation to the charity it supports. Far from moving it, the coasts should come copy this. Or, just come and race.

Jingle Cross got the World Cup because the promotor has tirelessly worked for years to make JC a fantastic event then shelled out $500,000, flew to Europe and long with city officials to meet with the UCI and others, arranged to transport bikes and equipment from Las Vegas to Iowa, arranged sponsorships lodging, advertising, along with a ton of other details to make sure it would be world class. When someone on the East or West coast can match John’s enthusiasm for their race maybe they will get a World Cup race, until then why be such a Debbie-downer? Be happy the US had two WC races this year.

WC will never happen in Gloucester. The park is quite small and a lot of complaints by local resident with the park condition after muddy races and other problems. The race almost stopped due to difficulty to obtain town permit and the promoters had to do a lot of concessions (max total riders/day, usage of the park, etc).

The race was televised on Universal Sports Sunday afternoon. Not live, but full coverage of both the men’s and women’s races. Steve Schlanger and Tim Johnson were the commentators. Universal Sports also covered Cross Vegas.

Broadcast rights to UCI world cup cyclocross races are controlled by the UCI. In the U.S., NBC Sports Network had the rights. But it opted only to stream the race live and show it tape delay over the air.